OK, Nate Silver, how do you like Chipotle?

Nate Silver, the New York Times blogger and statistician, is being hailed this week for his successful prediction Barack Obama would win re-election. But more importantly, how much does he like Chipotle?

Before Silver rose to prominence for his political prognostications — he accurately predicted how voters in every state would vote for president — he embarked in 2007 to find out which taquerias in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood served the best Mexican food.

The website Eater.com dug into Silver’s plan to visit 19 restaurants that were relatively close to his apartment.

Here’s how Silver described what he was trying to do on his blog, which was called Burrito Bracket: http://burritobracket.blogspot.com “The Burrito Bracket is a competition to determine the best food and overall experience from among 19 cheap Mexican restaurants in Chicago’s Wicker Park and surrounding neighborhoods. Each week, I will be visiting two restaurants and having the same item of food (carne asada burritos, for example) at each one. The restaurant that provides the superior experience advances to the next round of the bracket.”

One of the restaurants was Chipotle Mexican Grill, which is owned by a Denver company (NYSE: CMG).

Silver never actually finished the project, in which he put the winning restaurants in brackets like basketball teams shooting for the NCAA Final Four. But before he moved on to other things, Silver did sample what Chipotle had to offer.

Silver wrote that he’s probably eaten at Chipotle more than any other restaurant in his life. In his review, Silver estimated he’s eaten 420 meals at Chipotle.

He wrote about his experience: “The single factor that is most underrated in Chipotle’s success is how unbelievably efficient it is in turning out its food. The burrito assembly line moves very quickly. I haven’t timed it, but I’d guess that if there isn’t a queue, you can be eating your food within about 90 seconds of having walked inside. It’s not McDonald’s fast -- it’s like vending machine fast.” The italics are Silver's.

For his blog, Silver tried the chicken tacos, and pitted Chipotle’s version against ones made by a restaurant called Picante Taqueria.

Silver wrote: “I thought that Picante Taqueria would make a good pairing for Chipotle, because these are the two restaurants in the bracket that were created more or less unapologetically by white people and for white people.”

Silver, who rated each restaurant on such factors as the meat, tortillas, salsa, presentation, service and price, gave the first-round battle between Chipotle and Picante Taqueria to the latter, 30 points to 29, in what he described as a “minor upset.”

Chipotle had bested Picante Taqueria in nearly all categories except for how much Silver liked the tortillas. “This all boils down to Chipotle’s one unpardonable sin, which was using a clunky, overthick, doughy and flavorless flour tortilla for their soft tacos. For a burrito, this might have been fine … but the rule of thumb in the bracket is that only performance in the round in question counts,” he wrote.